Folklore as a discipline is often misunderstood and undervalued by many with limited exposure to the field. The term folklore elicits the notion of fairytales and children’s stories, of fairy godmothers and talking animals. While this is certainly one component of folk and fairy tales, there is much, much more to be found both within the stories and the wider field.

Industrialization and Other Early Threats to Culture

To fully understand the emergence of the field of folklore, we must take a quick glance at the preceding history. Europe had just gone through the Age of Reason, Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was a period when the old superstitions and unscientific medical notions of the Medieval and Renaissance eras gave way to scientific explanations.

We then moved into the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As the West industrialized, large numbers of peasants from the countryside relocated to seek work in the cities.

"Iron and Coal" by William Bell Scott

The Scientific Age’s rejection of folk tradition, of course, occurred on the heels of the Protestant Reformation, which puritanically rooted out any old folk customs that retained the smell of old paganism.

​Roman Catholicism, of course, had also attempted to extinguish paganism, but the Church maintained a level of tolerance for local folk customs as long as they were white-washed with a Christian veneer.

Introduction of Christianity in Poland, by Jan Matejko

So we have a progression where old customs were first altered, then persecuted, and thentolerated but with a condescending arrogant view that they were the customs of the backward peasantry.

And, in actuality, some folk customs were still persecuted into the Age of Science when laws were passed outlawing folk healing in favor of the new science based medicine. In some cases this was justified. Folk healers came in all sorts, from the true and honest herbalist to the charlatan who invented nonsense cures for profit.

An Awakening to the Loss of Culture

​​As technology was changing rapidly, people began to feel nostalgic for the lives they left behind. Where rural life had been looked down upon as backwards and ignorant, it was now romanticized as a more pure way of living, unsullied by pollution and mechanization.

By the 19th century, a realization occurred to some notable people who would become pioneers in the burgeoning field of folklore.

They realized that there was a vast amount of knowledge carried by the rural folk that was in danger of being lost as their young people left the countryside.

​From legitimate herbal medicines to superstitious cures, from legendary tales to heart-wrenching ballads, there was a great deal of information on the verge of being lost forever.

​As most of these country folk were illiterate, folklorists took it upon themselves to travel about the countryside recording their tales, songs, etc.

Vintage photo of an elderly Irish woman at her spinning wheel.

Pioneer Folklorists

There are so many pioneers in this field that it is impossible to name them all here. Some of them you will already be familiar with, such as Jacob Grimm (1785-1863).

Jacob and his brother Wilhelm are the famous “Brothers Grimm,” who recorded the many fairy tales from their native Germany. Jacob Grimm was also an accomplished folklorist. Grimm was a student of language and linguistics as well as mythology.

By traveling around German speaking areas and recording legends he was able to begin to piece together some of the lost canon of German mythology.

​His most famous work is called Teutonic Mythology, a multivolume epic masterpiece on German myth.

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It was a British writer called William Thoms (1803-1885) who is credited for coining the term folklore. Thoms was a fan of Jacob Grimm and thus had an interest in the field. But, there was previously no one word to describe it, especially as the field covers such a wide range of topics.

Thoms used the word folklore in a letter he wrote in 1846 to a magazine called Athenaeum, a leading literary magazine of the day. Soon thereafter, the academic discipline was founded as well as folklore societies in Britain and the United States. Between the years of 1870 and 1910, the field of folklore essentially was born and proverbially grew legs.

Fairy tale art by H. J. Ford

​Not only was world’s first folklore society formed, but folklorists combed rural regions for the first time to make record of the folklore and folk customs at the local level.

It was also during this period that the first folklore journal was issued.

There was enough interest in the subject that the journals had no dearth of article submissions.

The growing interest in folklore brought about an interest in Celtic culture. Because England industrialized earlier than her Celtic neighbors, Ireland, Wales, and especially the Highlands of Scotland remained markedly more rural… which made them rich resources for folk tradition.

Because the book was such a major success, the publisher encouraged its author to return to Ireland to collect more stories.

And, thus the anonymous author, whom we now know to be Thomas Croften Croker (1798-1854), then published not only a second but a third volume as well.

​Croker’s volumes on Irish fairy lore were the first ever intentional field surveys of British folklore, on par with Grimm’s Household Tales.

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Another notable name with whom you may be familiar is Scotsman Andrew Lang. He is most well remembered for his many “Fairy Books” published between 1889 and 1910. Each one is named for a color; The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, and so on. These books were lavishly illustrated, mainly by artist Henry J. Ford.

​Far from simply a children’s author, Lang was a noted folklorist who not only published in his own right, but was also asked to contribute prefatory essays in the published works of other experts in the field.

Illustration by H. J. Ford

The Field of Folklore in the 20th Century

As mentioned, there are so many important people that I can’t possibly cover them all. And, as I would like to move forward to discuss the field of folklore today, we shall fast-forward to the 20th century.

If you read my often, you will have noticed that I am quite a fan of folklore. As such, I have developed a rather large personal library of books related to European and especially British folklore. In collecting these tomes, I have noticed that there seems to have been a resurgence of interest in Folklore in the 1960s and 70s which trickled into the early 80s where the trail comes to a halt. Numerous books were published during that 20(ish) year period which are out of print today.

A series of regional folklore books that I have been collecting is called The Folklore of the British Isles, published by B. T. Batsford Ltd., and credits Venetia J. Newall as the “general editor.” Each volume, however, is named for the region it covers and credited to an individual author.

The Folklore of the British Isles series from Carolyn's collection. Click to view larger

Among the authors are two that I recognize from their other work; Ernest W. Marwick and Jacqueline Simpson. Marwick is the scholar of choice for anyone interested in Orkney Studies, as he literally wrote the definitive book on the subject.

And Simpson is a noted academic who has published works on European mythology, Viking history, and regional British folklore. I cannot say enough good things about her book European Mythology, which is actually more about folklore than myth, and recommend it whenever I get the chance.

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A Slump and Resurgence of Interest in Folklore Today

​Moving onward to even more recent history, it seems that folklore had been experiencing aslump in public awareness. This is simply my own theory, but I believe that a socio-cultural phenomenon similar to what occurred following the Scientific Revolution has re-emerged in ourcontemporary “Electronic Age,” and even moreso with globalization.

Just as advancements in medicine and technology caused our forbearers to dismiss folk practices during their age, I think that our even greater advancements in science and technology, as well as a movement away from traditional religion, has caused folklore to be, at worst, outright rejected and, at best, misunderstood by the public today.

Illustration by H. J. Ford

For the past few decades we have been both looking to the stars as well as looking under the microscope. Science is taught to our youth early on, and rightly so. Institutes of technology havesprung up which emphasize science and math. This is the wave of the future.

Atheism may not be the belief of the majority, but it is certainly believed by many more than ever before. And, among those who are religious, more and more people choose to identify as being “spiritual but not religious” in what appears to be a collective moving away from organized religion.

Don’t misunderstand, there is nothing wrong with any of those things. But, I think that as our culture has shifted forward yet again, folklore was again shunted to the side.

How can the pragmatic atheist show an interest in fairy stories? How can the scientist entertain the idea of spiritual entities living among us?

Of course, any folklorist will tell you that the field of folklore is about much more than that.

​But, stories about the mystical and magical have been a part of our past for thousands of years, and they are a legitimate part of our cultural heritage.

Though, as our societies are changing far more rapidly than ever before in the history of humanity, our cultures are at graver risk than ever before.

Illustration by Frank Pape

Folklore Scholars of Note

Today, there is a resurgence of interest in folklore. It seems that the regional surveys of local lore are not being written as readily as they were even into the 1970s. But, many academics are specializing in very focused areas of folklore.

Emma Wilby, at the University of Exeter, England, is the leading scholar on cunning folk (folk healers and wise people) and their association with fairy lore.

​​There is a lot of fluff published for “fairy lovers” and it can be difficult to wade through it all for those who have an academic interest in the subject. The above authors are all academically trained experts in their fields and have researched surviving recorded lore as well as historical records and documents.

Cherish Folk Tradition, Preserve Our Cultural Heritage

Water nymphs by John W. Waterhouse

Even as there may have been a temporary slump in this field for a little while, it is clear that folklore as both an academic field and as a personal interest is alive and well today, and possibly more popular than ever.

What I really hope people take away from this article is an understanding of the importance of folk heritage to everyone within their own respective culture, whatever that culture is.

​Just as we strive to respect other world cultures, our own Western culture must be respected and preserved.

​We must pass a love for history and folk traditions on to the next generation, tell our children the fairytales our grandparents told us, keep traditions alive, and preserve historical heritage sites for the future.

Illustration by Frank Pape

​My name is Carolyn Emerick, and I write on the history, myth, and folklore of Northwestern Europe.

Explore this website for more on European history, mythology, and folk tradition. Please check out the section for my books!